Electric light bulbs and sockets therefor



Dec. 3, 1963 w. T. FOWLER ELECTRIC LIGHT BULBS AND SOCKETS THEREFOR Filed NOV. 3. 1960 INVENTOR. MI. 1. mm Z'Fmw. ER

United States Patent 3,112,972 ELECTRKC LIGHT BULBS AND SGGKETS THEREFGR The present invention relates to electric light bulbs and to sockets therefor, and has for its principal object, a lamp with a base and a socket cooperative therewith of such form that the lamp base is magnetically held to the socket when plugged thereinto.

According to the invention the lamp base has embodied therein one or more permanent magnets alongside a tapered plug for projection into a similarly tapered socket cavity. One of the lead wires from the lamp lilament connects with such plug. The other lead wire is secured to an annular contact member surrounding the plug.

The socket for such lamp embodies a plug cavity having at its bottom a resilient contact for engagement with the bottom of a tapered plug. Arranged around such cavity is a ring of magnetic material seizable by the magnet or magnets of a lamp base embodying the invention when its plug is projected into such cavity. Surrounding such magnet or magnets is an annular current feeding contact strip for engagement with the annular contact member embodied in the lamp base.

The accompanying drawing shows in FIG. 1, by way of example, a spherical electric lamp, partly in section, provided with a base assembly embodying the invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the base region of such lamp and its base assembly.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the lamp base.

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view, partly in section, and on a reduced scale compared to FIGS. 1 and 2, of a socket for the lamp shown in FIGS. 1 and '2 embodied in an adaptor plug for a conventional form a Edison of Mogul type screw thread appliance plug socket.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated, the lamp bulb 11 is spherical and has projected from its spherical boundary, only the plug 12 thereof. The sealed off end of the exhaust tube 13 projects into the cavity of plug 12. Lead wire 14 of the lamp projects through an aperture 15 in plug 12 and is bent over and suitably soldered thereto. The lead wire 16 is soldered to a ring contact 17 which surrounds a base of insulating material 20 in which the plug 12 is embedded, as are three permanent magnets such as 23 uniformly spaced from one another between the plug 1 2 and contact ring 17.

After making the necessary connections between wire 14 and plug 12 and between wire 16 and ring 17 the base assembly is attached to the bulb with a ring of adhesive material 24 placed between the bulb surface and ring 17 The socket and adaptor plug comprises a metal shell 25 provided with threads 26 for threading it into a conventional form of screw thread Edison or Mogul socket.

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The surf-ace 31 is shaped to match the spherical surface of lamp 111. Axially arranged within shell 25 is a conductor 27 the one end 28 of which terminates at the base of the plug and serves as a contact disc. The other end of conductor 27 is bent over to form a resilient contact 32 in the bottom of a socket cavity 33 molded into the body 3% of insulating material surrounded by shell 26 and through which conductor 27 extends. Embedded in body 3t) and flush with the surface 31 is a ring 34 of magnetic material positioned to be engaged and seized by magnets such as 23 when the base plug 12 is projected into socket cavity 33. As will be seen the rotary position of the lamp base 11 with respect to the adaptor plug is immaterial, since the ring 34 is available to magnets such as 23 irrespective of the relative rotary position of the adaptor plug and lump base.

What is claimed is:

The combination of a lamp and an adaptor, said lamp comprising an envelope having a re-entrant portion at its base, said re-entrant portion having therein a base as sembly having an outwardly convex outer spherical surface forming a portion of a sphere surrounding a first electrical contact, which contact projects outwardly from said surface, a generally circular second electrical contact portion forming a part of said spherical surface and separated from said first electrical contact portion by an electrically insulating material forming a part of said spherical surface, said first and said second electrical contact portions being electrically connected to a filament within said lamp, said adaptor having a threaded portion suitable for effecting electrical contact with a conventional threaded electric bulb socket and an outwardly concave top surface forming a portion of a sphere of the same radius as that of said outer surface of said base assembly and having an inwardly projecting first electrical contact portion complementary in shape to said first contact portion of said base assembly and separated by an electrically insulating material from a generally circular contact portion forming a part of said top surface and complementary in shape to said second electrical contact of said base assembly, one of said base assembly and said adaptor having therein at least one permanent magnet and the other having therein a material attracted by said magnet.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,004,002 Euler Sept. 26, 1911 1,925,986 Geiger et al Sept. 5, 1933 2,131,253 Langille Sept. 27, 1938 2,200,978 Blake May 14, 1940 2,365,963 Kiehl Dec. 26, 1944 2,788,501 Buquor et al Apr. 9, 1957 2,851,623 Berger Sept. 9, 1958 2,903,667 Buquor Sept. 8, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 117,524 Germany Dec. 8, 1899 974,153 Germany Sept. 29, 1960 

